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Kusari
Kusari, officially the Empire of Kusari (Japanese: 鎖帝国, Kusari Teikoku), is an interstellar nation in the northern Sirius sector which capital is located on the planet Shintokyo. Its name means "The Locked up Empire", referring to the isolationist tradition of the country. History Arrival and Foundation Kusari was the third sleeper ship to arrive in Sirius. Electing to settle the northernmore systems in and around the Crow nebula, they found to their disappointment that all worlds there were either gas giants or water worlds with only a few landmasses each of various sizes. The colonists, hailing from the densely populated island nation of Japan, had hoped to find planets with considerably more land then their former home. Reluctantly, they settled the copies of their homeland and with time grew to become an economic powerhouse, building up an industry centred on ship fuel, agriculture and electronics. It was decided that a semi-feudal system would be the most effective method of governance, and so the shogunate was established. The first planet to be colonized was Shintokyo in 5 AS, roughly half a decade later the planets Honshu, Kyushu and Junyo were discovered and rapidly colonized, as Shintokyo lacked any sizeable landmasses that could sustain any larger population groups. At the beginning, Kusari industry became based on fishing, with Kyushu being able to support the Tellurian fish strains and Junyo supplying Kusari with the more alien ones. Honshu survived as a colony for about a couple hundred years, when a catastrophic decline in fish stocks forced the colonists off the planet in search for new sources of income. They discovered that the noble gases that made up the crow nebula could be mined, refined and combined to form a more powerful fuel for spacecraft, dubbed "H-Fuel". With this discovery, former Honshu colonists formed the Gas Miners Guild and set out to enrich themselves in the fuel industry, an event that would mark the beginning of Kusari's dominance in that market. The War-torn Edo Period Like in their ancestral home, Kusari became a place defined by corporate giants, so called "keiretsu's", vast conglomerates that control entire industries. Samura Heavy Industries and Kishiro Technologies became the prime (and with time the only) actors on the Kusari commercial scene, companies whose influence would stretch into all branches of Kusari life. Sometime around 630 AS, the emperor of the Hideyoshi line was violently deposed by agents from the Samura corporation, and his guards were chased out of Kusari space. The next emperor came from the Edo line, a family with close ties to Samura, thus the entirety of the empire pretty much came under Samura rule. The fugitive guards escaped into the cloudy north of the country, where they founded the Blood Dragons organization and established the legendary Kyoto base as their headquarters. Their goal became the deposition of the Edo line from the throne, the destruction of the Samura concern and the reinstatement of the Hideyoshi dynasty. A very difficult objective, as Samura had installed various security measures to ensure the continuity of the Edo dynasty. Most members of the government were pro-Samura, the GMG were contracted to deliver gas only to Samura, Kishiro's breathing space became very limited and the Hogosha, a quasi-legal traditional mafia organization with its roots in the Japanese yakuza groups, became a Samura supported and ensured that any underground dissident movements were quickly dealt with. Problems arose soon however, for in the latter half of the 7th century AS, the GMG came into conflict with the colony of Rheinland over rights to mine the crow nebula in the Sigma systems, a conflict which quicly escalated into a bloody war when Rheinland corporate interests convinced the Rheinland imperial government to go on the offensive. This marked the start of the 80-Years War, which would eventually come to be the bloodiest conflict in the history of Sirius. This wasn't made any easier by the emergence of the radical feminist Goldem Chrysanthemum terrorist movement in the early 700s and the opening of borders to foreign enterprises, which put a strain on Kusari farmers due to the Liberty corporation Synth Foods, Inc.'s incredibly successful food product: synth paste, which rapidly concurred out many farmers. The 80-Years War ended around mid-700 AS with a GMG victory, but with heavy costs for Kusari as a whole. For Samura, it went from bad to worse when in the Gas Miners Guild in the late 700s chose to enter a partnership with Samura rival Kishiro Technologies concerning H-fuel distribution and gas miner contruction instead renewing their conctract with Samura, thus greatly increasing the rival corporation's influence within Kusari society. The GC had also succeeded in funneling cardamine into the Kusari youth culture, adding yet another problem. By the advent of the 800's, the Nomad wars were at the opening stage and many top level officials were infested by the alien Nomads, who then proceeded to shape event in such a way that would lead to war between all the major houses. Kusari invaded Bretonia, but was in turn invaded by Rheinland, and at the sime time suffered the death of many high level officials as a result of assasinations by the Blood Dragons and The Order, an enigmatic criminal organization. When the Nomad War ended in 802 AS, Kusari lay in ruins and had to start a tedious process of rebuilding. Revolution The Edo shogunate however, wouldn't last much longer. With the end of the war, the goverment of Rheinland had collapsed and the country descended into anarchy, thus depriving the Kusari state the reparations that were to be paid by the country for both the 80-Years and Nomad wars: an important source of income. When Rheinland reconsolidated under a new administration in 809 AS, Kusari citizens watched with inspiration how a corrupt regime was toppled and replaced with a true example of democracy. The Kusari navy being destroyed following the war was then forced to powerlessly watch as criminal groups began roaming freely in Kusari space, gaining sympathy among a growing number of Kusari citizens who were tired of the Samura-dominated goverment. Protests were held, many which eventually turned into riots. An alliance with Liberty and Bretonia was struck in hopes of them intervening in the unrest, but not even that could any longer stop the growing rebel movement. It all culminated in the Sakura assasination of 813 AS, when the Edo shogun and his entire bloodline was wiped out by Blood Dragon and Golden Chrysanthemum agents. The only surviving member of the Hideyoshi family line, Kunihito, was declared Shogun of Kusari, and the country was reorganized into a constitutional feudal monarchy. Samura was ordered to be dismantled by the state and active campaigns to purge the Hogosha were initiated, with morderately successful results. A liberalization process was initiated with the foreign houses serving as model systems, and Samura was overnight reduced from the most powerful corporation in the Sirius sector to nothing more than a lone rogure station in the border worlds: Shinkaku. Today, Kusari is still allied with Liberty and Bretonia, and with them form the Core Colonies block. The Blood Dragons have turned from rebel fighters to intelligence service and Kusari society has generally become more open, both for foreigners and for women, for whom an anti-discrimination campaign has been initiated by the state. The Farmers Alliance have calmed down after the destruction of Samura and restrictions placed of Synth Food while the Hogosha have been forced to the periphery of the Kusari underworld. The Golden Chrysanthemums continue to fight against the government, albeit a lot weaker after a the great emigration to Hispania in 534 AS. Despite complaints for its allies, especially Liberty, Kusari continues to maintain close ties with its neighbour Hispania, with Hispania being Kusari's primary trading partern and Kusari Hispania's 2nd largest, after Rheinland. Kusari for this reason also remains the only core colony which hasn't illegalized alien artefacts, and today a lucrative market for them exists in Kusari. Society Their government is an amalgam of old and new, a semi-feudal system in which the Shogun has absolute authority, but actual power is at most times exerted by a bicameral assembly. Regionally, the worlds are administered in a similar way, with the prime authority being held by an elected president and his cabinet, a bicameral assembly consisting of nobles and commoners and local feudal lords who hold enjoy a great deal of autonomy from the planetary government, but must ultimately submit to their authority. Nobles can develop and impose taxes in their lands in any way they see fit, they may also enact their own, local laws so long as none of these conflict with the constitution. They're also allowed to field private armies, though they must commit themselves to the nation in times of war. Failure to do this, or otherwise follow the Shogun's orders will result in them being stripped of their possessions. Lands that are not under feudal rule are governed by unicameral assemblies and elected governors. Corporations can also own and administer land, as is the case with Junyo, controlled mostly by Morioka Enterprises. Military Kusari's military is the weakest of the four classical houses' and the second weakest of all nine: equalling that of Philistea and only stronger than the Federation's volunteer-based military. Trading Main products are various electronics, ships, fish, rice and H-fuel. Their main imports consist of: various metals such as niobium, beryllium and gold and high temperature alloys from Bretonia, construction machinery, fertilizers and synth paste from Liberty as well as alien artefacts from Hispania. The last one much to the chagrin of the Libertonians, who seeks to limit and control the artefact trade in Sirius on grounds that it poses a significant danger to humankind. They're in a military alliance with Liberty and Bretonia, which puts them at odds with the FINS and thei traditional rival Rheinland. Despite this alliance, relations with the fringe block nation (Rheinland ally) Hispania have remained warm. Territories Kusari has a total of 10 systems: Shintokyo, Kyushu, Honshu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, Chugoku, Tohoku, Ryukyu, Karafuto and Chishima, with Shintokyo located at the heart of the empire. The royal capital is Tendounomon (meaning Heaven's Gate) in the Tohoku system, the real capital however, is Planet Shintokyo in the Shintokyo system, which is the centre for all judicial, legislative and executive authorities within the nation. Shintokyo is also one of the largest settlements in the entire sector, despite its lack of any sizeable landmasses. The majority of Shintokyo consists of atolls, island chains with tiny islands and a few larger ones numbered in the single digits, all crammed full with skyscrapers that reach for kilometres up into the sky. It's a diverse economy where the headquarters of the main corporate giants can be found, as well as myriads upon myriads of smaller establishments, while fishing is mostly a secondary industry. During the Edo period, Shintokyo was officially called New Tokyo (or Nyu Tokyo) Planet Fukuoka, located in the Kyushu system to the west of Shintokyo, was formerly called Planet Kyushu before the Sakura Revolution of 813 AS and is the centre for most of Kusari's agricultural products. It has by far the largest landmasses of any planet within Kusari space, which provides for ample ground to grow crops and, and many Earthen aquatic species took its seas with minimal problems. During the Edo period, Fukuoka served as a stronghold for Samura Heavy Industries, which has since been replaced by Morioka Enterprises, headquartered upon Morioka Station in the Tohoku system. The majority of all rice in Sirius is produced on Fukuoka. Planet Junyo in the Shikoku system is actually a moon in orbit around the gas giant, Seto. Junyo is the second largest food producer in Kusari space and the third after Fukuoka and Stuttgart, providing Kusari with tens of thousands of tonnes of fish every year, fish that has also begun to be exported to Liberty since the revolution. Junyo can take a few Earthen species, but not many, and most of what is fished from Junyo's vast globad ocean is actually alien. The Kusari don't seem to mind though, and consume anything that says "Product of Junyo" without a second thought. In the Honshu system, one will find the Planet Nara, formerly Planet Honshu during the Edo period. Nara was Kusari's first colony after Shintokyo and its citizens tried to sustain themselves on fishery and agriculture for a few centuries before a catastrophic decline in fish stocks somewhere i nthe mid 600s. Then, the residents moved into space to form the Gas Miners Guild and the planet wasn't touched again until about a hundred years later, when Kishiro Technologies decided to make Nara their main production centre for optronics all all other fine electronics. Since that, population has skyrocketed, especially since the revolution and founding of Hispania, as the new neighbour is eager to make use of anything Kusari made. The Nara plants work around the clock to deliver high quality Kusari merchandise to all around Sirius. Planet Okinawa is a more recent acquirement, surveyed by Samura in 807 AS and settled in 816, it is located in the Ryukyu system between four dense crow nebulas that reflect the young stars rays enough to give the system as sense of a well-lit room. Okinawa is known for not really having any nights, as the reflection causes it to more or less constantly be based in light, and nighttime is often better described as a perpetual twilight. Okinawa is also the only settled Kusari planet with a moon, creating unexpected tides that can wash away very large areas in a matter of minutes, significantly reducing living space on the planet. Only a few scattered islands strewn out over long chains have been settled, as any others are quickly consumed by the planets vicious tides. Okinawa is also a popular holiday resort and the third largest food producer within the shogunate, which like Fukuoka is able to support most strains of Earthen fish. It is expected that by the end of the 860s AS, Okinawa will have taken Junyo's place as the third largest food producer in Sirius. The latest acquisition of the empire is Planet Toyohara in the Karafuto system: a cold and rather inhospitable world with unforgivin snowstorms. Currently, it is being terraformed by the Bretonian firm Planetform Inc. in a partnership with Kishiro Technologies. Toyohara has a three continents and several larger islands, plus a world ocean that remains constantly frozen due to its distance from the young, weak Karafuto sun. It is expected however, that when Terraformina operations are completed in 868 AS, most of the planet will be covered in water, with only a few islands of considerable size much like Shintokyo, albeit with a significantly colder, more temperate climate rather than the tropical heat of most Kusari planets. Toyohara is to provide for not only more living space but also become an additional fishing world, totalling the amount to four along with Junyo, Fukuoka and Okinawa. An objective that the Kusari government wants to be met as soon as possible, so as to compensate for the de-effictivization of the Junyo fisheries ever since the loss of planet Kurile and the steady influx of alien organisms in 813 AS. Kyoto Base in the Chugoku system and Tendounomon in the Tohoku system cannot really be classified as planets, but rather planetoid-sized asteroid that are big enough to support human life within their hollow cores. Tendounomon is the royal capital of Kusari and is the home of many administrative offices, nobles, hotels and high-end shops as well as 51 million Kusari citizens, with the Shogun himself living at the top in the Royal Arch Palace. Kyoto on the other hand is a purely military stronghold owned by the Blood Dragons, the elite special forces and intelligence service branch of the Kusari Naval Forces, who run the place in an almost Spartan manner. 7 million citizens reside within the confines of the lonely asteroid, with almost everyone engaged in the military, the others are primarily employed in the waste disposal business or run the many small shops and restaurants that see to the daily needs of the soldiers of the empire.